CHANDIGARH, India Oct. 6, Reuter: An assassination attempt by Sikh freedom fighters on Punjab Police Chief Julio Ribeiro has exposed serious gaps in security there, the state’s Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala said today.

“Ribeiro guards were not trained, they were not quick to react,” Barnala told Reuters, “The attackers were apparently helped by somebody inside the camp who new the entire set up.

“There has definitely been a serious security lapse”.

Ribeiro, known for his tough anti-Sikhs stance and his wife Melba were slightly injured when six gunmen disguised as policemen stormed a heavily guarded police camp in the industrial city of Jullundur last Friday.

Two paramilitary policemen were killed and four were injured by the attackers who escaped .Most of the northern India was placed on red alert after the attack and the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Delhi the previous day.

“This kind of attack was always feared,” said Barnala, whose moderate Sikh government has been plagued by freedom fighters since coming to power one year ago, who want a separate Sikh state in Punjab.

“We knew the freedom fighters would try to show their hand through a major incident. By hitting selective targets they get more publicity” he said

“By attacking Ribeiro, the freedom fighters have only tried to prove their existence, to show that they are capable of causing barn,” he said,

More than 530 people have: been killing in Punjab in violence since Barnala took office.

A senior police official told Reuters that in comparison, about 600 people had died in the state in the previous two years when Punjab was ruled directly from New Delhi,

Freedom Fighters attacks dropped sharply after Ribeiro took ‘command in March and unleashed an anti-Sikh offensive in the State involving police backed by paramilitary troops.

Last week the state government said 38 freedom fighters were killed and 744 captured by police between May and August.

Ribeiro, 57, who once promised to match four bullets for one bullet, is said to be on the assassination list along with Gandhi, who appointed him to Punjab.

Barnala said he felt Ribeiro had probably been too outspoken. “His statements were certainly controversial. But what else could he say if reporters kept asking him provocative questions?

Barnala said the attack on Ribeiro was not a reversal and declared that in the past four months there had been’ a good deal of success in anti-freedom fighters operations.

“Even in the worst hit districts of Amritsar and Gurdaspur bordering Pakistan the situation is improving steadily”.

He said Ribeiro had improved the morale of Punjab’s 34,000 strong police force.

“He has constantly gone to the ‘grassroots visited hundreds of police stations and met even the lowest constables few officers do.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 10, 1986